This person is a verified professional.

We just moved into a new building a couple of weeks ago and I was fortunate enough to get to add a few extras to my office -

42" LED television

DirecTV

38" Vizio Soundbar with wireless subwoofer (I paid for this)

Bose Companion 5 computer speakers (I also paid for these)

So, I can watch or listen to whatever I want. Being in the office farthest away from the general population I can crank it up and only disturb my guys ;)

Music usually playing - Liquid Metal on SiriusXM, heavy metal playlists/stations from Amazon, or I sometimes alternate to Outlaw County. Not the new crap they call country these days. Old country like Wille, Waylon and what is considered outlaw country - Steve Earle, Ryan Bingham, Jamey Johnson, Stugill Simpson, Hayes Carll, etc.

This person is a verified professional.

I usually only throw on the headphones when I have a lot of remote work or server configuration to do. Most other times I'm up and about or on the phone.

If I don't care what I'm listening to I'll hit shuffle on the library on my computer. If I want something more specific I'll turn to I Heart Radio on my phone and launch one of my custom stations, usually Tool or 90's rock.

I can listen to music but I usually don't. Here is why. I listen to music and then a great song comes on. I'm working. I'm jamming. Then someone comes in with a crisis. I now have to get out of my jam and I'm irked. I don't want to be irked when people show up needing help. I just save the music for really quiet days.

Almost everyone in our office uses Spotify, I think it's great. On a IT level, I prefer something like spotify to someone ripping their entire Weezer collection to the computer (laugh,but I've seen it before)

I think the big thing is, if you can manage your work then it's not a problem. If you can't? Well, you'll have to tuck the headphones away

I listen to a lot of Spotify, and the great thing about Spotify is that they have playlists already made for me. I listen to a lot of indie electronica while I'm at work because it's really easy to sit back and work when that's playing.

Either that or the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack... what a good playlist.

We are allowed to. I usually listen to whatever is new. Or old school classic rock... or movie scores... or Audible... if I am doing something really intense, then I will listen to what my gaming music, which is a mix between superhero movie/ action scores and high intensity techno music.

This person is a verified professional.

Occasionally. Classic Rock or Country Music (real country music) I only listen with one ear, and keep the other open to listen for "tech panic" in the open cube space I work in with 4' partitions.

Many years ago the owner of the company walked up to a user's cubicle. He was wearing headphones listening to music.

The owner waited a few seconds and the user didn't notice he was there. So, the owner pulled off the guys headphones and firmly stated so everyone around could hear, that he should always be listening to what is going on around him. He may learn something.

This person is a verified professional.

I can't have music playing when I'm working. I can't read, talk on the phone, have a conversation with someone in the office, etc... if there's music playing. My brain just isn't wired to be able to process both and I can't filter out the music. My assistant is the exact opposite. He claims he can't work efficiently if there is no music. It's a constant battle with a lot of compromise. Well, compromise by me, anyway.

That said, I've been riding my bike to work lately. I feel better and it's dropped 10 points on my blood pressure(something my medication couldn't even do). It's all in my head, but I feel like the time goes by quicker if I listen to music while I'm riding. I go through phases with music. I like pretty much all types of music except for hardcore metal and dance music(techno type stuff, anything they'd play at a "rave," etc...). Lately, I've been in a pop punk kick. After listening to a lot of it on Pandora lately, I've come to realize that Bowling for Soup was a severely underrated group. So many good songs and I can only remember hearing maybe two or three on the radio.